Istanbul, Sept 14. (dpa/GNA) – A Turkish court on Friday, sentenced suspended Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu to two years and one month in prison, for “publicly insulting a public official,” state broadcaster TRT reported.
The court also imposed restrictions on İmamoğlu`s political rights that, if upheld on appeal, would cost the jailed mayor his post and trigger a vote among members of Istanbul’s municipal council to elect a replacement mayor.
The court convicted İmamoğlu over remarks he made in 2022 about then-mayor of Istanbul’s Tuzla district at the time.
İmamoğlu, who attended the hearing from Istanbul’s high-security Marmara Prison, where he is being held on separate charges, rejected the prosecutor’s request as “baseless” and “a scandal,” according to TRT. The case had previously ended in acquittal twice, but an appeals court overturned the ruling on procedural grounds and sent it back for retrial.
İmamoğlu, a potential presidential contender against President Tayyip Erdoğan, has faced a series of separate prosecutions, including on corruption charges, since his arrest in March 2025.
GNA